The Black Cauldron
by Tracer Fallon
Summary: S2 finale battle, after  A/U  Sailor Mercury has taken a few things from Crystal Tokyo to aid in the defeat of Wiseman and Black Lady. One Shot.


**The Black Cauldron**

"Just hold on," Sailor Moon cried softly, letting the man who'd taken a direct hit for her rest in her lap. She admired his black-moon-free forehead, and gently touched his face, wondering how he'd freed himself of Wiseman's control. A tear dripped onto his face, and when his eyes opened, she tried to smile and wipe it away. "That's right; just hold on—"

Diamond reached up and grabbed her hand, far more forcefully than he'd intended, but the pain of Wiseman's attack had left him with far too little physical control of his movements. He noted that she hadn't flinched, though, and he managed a pained smile: "You're everything I knew you to be, Serenity."

Sailor Moon shook her head, "I'm not her."

"You're very sweet," he said softly, his breath now sputtering with blood. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have known love, and I'd still be under Wiseman's control."

Sailor Moon used her free hand to wipe her tears away and look up; where the hell were her friends? She didn't know what to do! She couldn't help him! They needed help now more than ever or Diamond would die here.

He unwound his hand from hers and reached for her face. "And you're her, alright." He coughed, a movement that left his body wracked in pain, but looked back up at Serenity. "I'd …heard, of these days," he managed. "We'd thought them legend, of course; it seemed like a fairy tale." After another cough, he added, "—that centuries ago, a group of _children_ battled a great evil and saved the world." He laughed even now at the thought, which sent pain tearing through his ribcage. "You were the children," and then he frowned. "I was the great evil."

"That could never be true!" Sailor Moon said, but smacking herself on the inside. Except it really hadn't been Diamond that was their foe; it had been Wiseman. "Diamond, don't talk!" Sailor Moon said, weeping. She punched the alarms on her communicator furiously; where _WERE_ they? She cried, "Save your strength!"

Diamond pulled her face down to look at her; force her to look at him. "I am dying, Serenity; don't make your friends rush to my aid. Keep your faith; if the stories I'd read about were true, you shall defeat Wiseman, but only with great effort. I believe the legends speak of you, Serenity; that Wiseman is just one of the many manifestations of Chaos that you'll defeat. —I can't believe I didn't see it before!"

"What are you talking about," Sailor Moon sobbed; the man was not making sense; he was giving up, and nobody should ever give up!

"If I recall, the first one was named Metallia, a sprite from the Sun who'd attacked the Earth." Diamond smiled warmly at her as her eyes went wide: "You know the name."

"Are you saying Wiseman is Metallia?" Sailor Moon whispered, taken aback. "But we defeated her!" She wept again; the poor man was delusional. She pulled his head more closely into her lap and insisted, "You've got to keep your wits, Diamond; we can get you out of here!"

Diamond relished in her embrace. "You'll defeat him, Sailor Moon. I can die happy, believing that." And as the pretty suited girl nodded at him, more tears falling, he said, "If the legends are true, he'll come back several times within the next year or two; you'll lose everyone you know, for a time." He grabbed her hand and kissed it. "But it'll all turn out okay; and you will be happy in the end." And now a tear fell from his dying eye as he said his last words: "I was a better man for knowing you."

Sailor Moon screamed as Diamond breathed his last, and continued screaming until her friends finally arrived. Far too late.

.

**THE ALL-ENCOMPASSING PLOT**  
>Tuxedo Mask had stopped Wiseman from killing Sailor Moon, and then the Senshi arrived, ready to help. Mask said, "Wiseman's going to release the dark energy now; we've got to seal the gate!" and he took off.<p>

As the girls ran behind him to catch up, Sailor Mars told the slowing Sailor Moon to stop her blubbering and focus. "I know this is hard, Sailor Moon, but we'll find Rini and we'll beat Wiseman!"

Sailor Venus looped an arm around Sailor Moon and said, "You have to believe!"

Sailor Moon wiped her eyes and said, "I believe." But she was still inconsolable. She cried, "Prince Diamond told me of a legend, Venus; in his dying words, he told me he believed it was about us." She couldn't recount it without crying—

Sailor Jupiter knocked them all to the ground behind a dark crystal spire, just as a blast of dark energy plowed through the path they'd just been taking. They'd lost Tuxedo Mask, and needed to find a safe way of transporting to the very top of the crystal; Mask couldn't do this alone—

"Are you sure he had the right legend?" Sailor Venus said nervously, trying to laugh as she comforted Sailor Moon.

Sailor Moon shook her head: "You don't _understand_; it's not that we'll defeat Wiseman!" Then she wailed, causing Black Lady's energy blast to find them again. This time it was Sailor Mercury who'd saved the day and protected them with a sharp kick to a crystal spire that toppled over them, protecting them from the shattering dark crystal.

"Then what the hell _**is**_ it?" Mars demanded. "Cause I don't think it can get much worse than THIS!"

And that's when they learned of Diamond's 'legend': that the Dark Phantom they were now fighting, Wiseman, was Metallia reborn. Or rather, that the same entity who had powered Metallia, and was now powering Wiseman, would become yet another Big Bad even if they defeated the Dark Phantom today!

As Sailor Moon finished her story, she swallowed her melancholy and, remembering all the people they had to save, most especially including Rini, she finished, "But we've got to take one day at a time; we've got to defeat Wiseman and get Rini back!" And without looking back, she ran off to find her way to the center of the dark crystal where Tuxedo Mask was. As the other Senshi moved to follow her, Sailor Mercury halted them and opened her computer.

"You don't believe that claptrap, do you?" Mars asked Mercury.

Mercury punched several keys on the computer and turned its display to the other Senshi: "Assuming that legend's true, this entity wasn't truly killed when Metallia was destroyed; and couldn't be killed even if we defeat Wiseman today."

Sailor Venus watched Mercury's strange computer display and asked, "Where'd you get that?"

Mercury blushed slightly, but said, "When we were looking for Rini the Crystal Palace, I found my future counterpart's room; I've been pouring over this thing ever since." She swallowed, then pointed at the 3D hologram that appeared in the computer's display. "This file's dated the day that Metallia died." The display showed a 3D room seemingly filled with smoke. "It's running in slow-mo, and I hadn't known what these images depicted before now."

"Uh, yeah; it just looks like a bunch of smoke turning into a wisp of smoke and disappearing, Mercury," Jupiter said.

Mercury moved her finger across the display and zoomed in on the scene: "No; this _**is **_Metallia! This great white light that's encroaching her is the Silver Crystal; but this…" and she pointed to the tiny wisp of smoke, "seems to be something that escaped before the Silver light enveloped the world." She zoomed in even closer, and chuckled with embarrassment: "Honestly, I'd thought it was a game, and I spent days trying to figure out how to _PLAY_ the game."

"Well what IS it, Mercury?" Mars sniped. "We don't have time for this!"

"No, no, no!" Mercury said, pointing now at a tiny black dot. "Metallia died, but some part of her escaped through this tiny black dot." Beat. "That's a **portal**."

Venus stepped back: "And that smoky line became Wiseman a thousand years later?"

Mercury shook her head, then changed displays entirely. "No, look at this. There are similar depictions from today's date, and again in about six months, and then again in another few months." She cleared her throat and showed them the final file: "And then there's THIS; the last file of this type."

The girls all watched as the file dated nearly two years into the future showed the same Silver light, but this time against a much blacker world. And the smoke had grown considerably, nearly filling the entire virtual 3D display. The little black dot grew, and it grew into the shape of a strange-looking pot. As the depiction showed the Silver light fading, all the girls gasped. —But then the Silver light joined with the horrible black smoke, and the darkness was suddenly sprayed upon the display in tiny little black dots everywhere, then slowly disappeared into the light. The Silver light grew brighter and brighter.

"I don't get it," Jupiter said, ducking a falling dark crystal spire. As Mercury shut the display and took off running with the others, Jupiter yelled back, "What kind of sicko game is that? Try to destroy the black dot with—?"

"It's not a game; _**it's our lives**_, Jupiter! The black dot is the portal through which Metallia escaped the first time," Mercury said. "In that last file, the portal had changed from a tiny black dot into a giant cauldron, and then the Silver light …_**won**_! I don't know how, but the light won, and there were no more files after this."

Jupiter shook her head, '_so?_', but Mars said, "You're saying that when Serena defeated Metallia, she escaped through the portal; she'll escape again today, if we should indeed defeat her; and she'll continue to escape until—"

"Until that portal changes into that big boiling pot thing!" Venus said, suddenly very serious. "—but that doesn't happen for several more years?"

"That sucks!" Jupiter said. "—but look you guys, we need to find Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask NOW!"

Mars got it, though, and as they came into a clearing, finally, she said, "But if we could widen the portal NOW, we might not have to face those …_those other times_." It had been clear to her that the Silver light dimming must be something horrible, like Serena's own death. Because the Metallia file had shown a small amount of wispy darkness being pushed away by the Silver light, and Mars knew they'd all died that day except Serena; so if the Silver light dimmed and was surrounded by pitch blackness in the future, making the Metallia battle seem like child's play, then that surely didn't bode well for their next few years.

"Exactly," Mercury said, then pulled out a few of the other metal things she'd also taken from her future self. "These were with the computer and seemed important, but had gathered dust." Mercury added, shyly, "I found their purpose in this computer just today, guys; they're meant to open portals, or at least to hold them open, if hit with Senshi power while the portal's open."

Jupiter stopped cold before joining hands for their transport, then sneered at Mercury in true surprise: "Okay, so we're supposed to set these things up near a tiny black hole we can't even see WHILE battling Wiseman, then FIRE on this dot, hoping to turn the portal into a cauldron, then somehow KICK Wiseman through it, and …voila, we're done?"

Mars was grinning widely, but Mercury shrugged: "I don't know, but if I'm reading this correctly, it seems like we could save Serena, and everyone, a whole lot of trouble in the near future if we were to attempt this. I didn't even know what these files _were_ until Sailor Moon told us what Diamond had said, but now it makes some sense."

"And maybe your future self even left those things for you to find!" Venus said. "After all, what would they need with them now if that black dot is gone?"

"Well, maybe they'd planned on using it if any more portals appeared in the future," Mercury said, feeling quite guilty now.

"Then they can build some more," Jupiter said with a gleam. "But it sounds like _we_ need them NOW!"

"But what if we don't hit it right?" Mercury sighed. "Or what if it's JUST Silver Crystal energy that's needed? —this might be something we can use in the next few months, after we've had a chance to examine these files more closely, but I'm not very comfortable with this data yet—"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Mars shouted, not giving a damn if that sniveling brat Black Lady heard her now. "This is METALLIA! You KNOW what she did to us earlier this year!"

"Not to mention in the Silver Millennium," Venus sighed. "Taking Kunzite and using him against us."

"That," Jupiter said, "and the whole thing with making Darien turn on Serena this year!" They hadn't believed Serena could make it through those memories as well as she had, and it had taken a lot of healing… but the thought of Serena having to go through this again and again? Jupiter punched her hand and said, "Let's finish this; once for all."

.

**THE DEFEAT OF CHAOS****  
><strong>Tuxedo Mask watched as his daughter, with renewed determination, ran towards her mother and joined the battle. "We should all battle him!" he announced, standing.

But when the girls didn't move, he stopped.

Sailor Mars moved towards him with Mercury's computer: "It's a long story, Darien, but Mercury's found out that this guy is Metallia herself!" As the two Silver Crystals battled Wiseman, Tuxedo Mask watched as the files were shown to him. He was shaking with fury well before the files were finished; the Senshi had explained everything to him, including what Diamond had said in his final moments, and then turned to see his future wife and daughter struggling so hard to defeat this .._this manifestation of Metallia_.

"I don't see this portal," Tuxedo Mask said, trying hard to focus on Wiseman's side of the battle as the Silver Crystal battled his dark energy.

"And how can we get up there?" Venus sighed, frustrated. "We need to _**BE**_ up there; HELPING!" _Screw this portal crap!_

"But they're beating him!" Mercury whispered. "It's like Diamond told her; we have to have faith!"

Mars detected Wiseman's dark energy signature explode with fury; surely the sign of the entity pulling out all the stops because he was being bested by the Silver Crystals. "You're right! But he's not giving up yet!" She turned to Tuxedo Mask: "Should we join the battle now, or …assume we're going to win, and Wiseman's going to escape again." She was nervous; as nervous as she'd ever been. They didn't have Sailor Moon's okay on this; they didn't have time to get it. It was do or die, NOW.

"Now's the time, Tuxedo Mask," Mars reiterated to the man who was watching the Silver Crystal energy grow enormous now.

Mercury still sat, staring at the computer she'd placed on the ground, but allowed Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mars to take the metallic structures; she glanced up to see them run around the Dark Crystal structure.

"Don't worry," Venus said, kneeling. "They're just going to place them; and Wiseman's hands are full! He'll never even detect them!"

.

"Where are we?" Sailor Moon asked, looking around in a strange, time-space anomaly as her daughter floated before her? Had they defeated Wiseman? SURELY they had! Diamond had been right, and her heart exploded with love; love for Diamond, and for her Senshi, and most especially love for Tuxedo Mask, who'd always been by her side, encouraging her. Her heart exploded for love for the whole world as she remembered Molly's words of encouragement. But above all, she felt the love of a mother for the little girl here with her now; the one they'd feared lost, but knew they had to fight to get her back. And they had, but only with Rini's strong sense of devotion to her parents and the world. "You were so brave, Rini; I'm so proud of you!"

And soon, she woke up, staring into the eyes of her Prince. The two Silver Crystals had suddenly destroyed Wiseman, and they were free of his evil! —for now, Serena knew, but she bit her lip, then smiled up at Darien. They had won, and they would continue to win. She'd never felt so happy in her whole life, and she included her defeat of Metallia, this defeat of Wiseman, and even her idyllic life as Princess Serenity a thousand years ago.

Wiseman had continued disintegrating, but for the briefest of moments, the Senshi looked up and saw the portal which was on the future Sailor Mercury's computer; the escape through which Chaos would escape to come back another day, just as Diamond had told Sailor Moon. "Oh _**hell**_!" Mercury said, then opened her future self's computer which operated the strange equipment they'd found. "_**It's really happening.**_"

Sailor Moon relaxed into Tuxedo Mask's arms, completely at peace. Yes, it had happened. They had put away this 'Dark Phantom'; their love had seen them through this terrible day. She looked up and saw Sailor Mars holding Rini, and immediately leaped to the little girl who'd helped them defeat Wiseman. She embraced her future daughter, crying with sheer happiness.

She had no idea why Sailor Mars gave Rini to her and stood up; probably to congratulate the others and give her some time with Rini.

.

**CRYSTAL TOKYO**  
>The Neo-Queen arose from her shields, helped up by her king, Endymion. She breathed in the air and smiled at her husband, then let him embrace her and pull her away from her prison. She giggled, "They really did it!"<p>

"Of course they did, my love," Endymion smiled, pulling back only to stare into her eyes. God how he'd missed her! This was new stomping ground for them both, being on this end of the continuum; being the King and Neo-Queen who they had, a millennia ago, met as their teenage selves. Earlier, Endymion had suffered doubt, _great_ doubt, especially after losing Small Lady in the castle; his world had ceased momentarily when he'd seen Puu roll out from behind this very crystal coffin, not recalling if that exact moment had happened a millennia ago when he'd been Tuxedo Mask.

But now, just the knowledge that Serenity had loaned her powers to first Serena, then to Small Lady, and that Wiseman was defeated and they would see their beloved daughter again soon, nothing could be better. "I have to admit, it got scary there for a time!"

Serenity buried her face in Endymion's chest; she had certainly feared she'd never share this moment with him again, as well. When he pulled back, she knew It was merely to embrace her in a more intimate manner; and she let him kiss her passionately for the first time in many moons.

.

While the other Senshi had joined the intimate reunion of Endymion and the Neo-Queen, Princess Mercury had returned to her quarters, worried beyond all measure. She had _FELT_ her equipment removed from her quarters; her computers were tied into her own circuitry which she'd embedded throughout her body and clothing; and there had been nobody else around to abscond with one of her computers besides their past selves —but she knew beyond a doubt that her past selves had never stolen property from Crystal Tokyo. It had to be a computer error; maybe a short in the circuitry!

But she had to investigate it, even if it meant the wrath of the Neo-Queen later. Which, she was sure, wouldn't be so wrathful; the court would understand, especially when she explained…

Upon entering her quarters, though, she saw what her circuitry was telling her. "They've taken my computer and the portal shifters!" The _experimental_ portal shifters! They weren't even finished yet; she'd been working on them for months, then quit, thinking it had been a futile effort; a waste of time, especially with the Time Gate being fully functional and completely indestructible…

Horror filled her — they wouldn't try such a foolish thing as to manipulate the portals Chaos used to escape unharmed! They wouldn't even be able to figure out what the tell-tale files meant!

"—The hell they wouldn't!" Princess Mercury said, then ran quickly down the stairs and out of the castle. She passed the celebration of the Neo-Queen's awakening, ran to her flyer, and jammed it to get to the Time Gate in time. She had no idea what she could DO there; talking to Setsuna wasn't ever the nicest experience one could have. But THIS was a potential bone fide emergency—

.

**A QUICK ****DECISION**  
>Mars knelt by Mercury and insisted, "We must act <strong>now<strong>, Sailor Mercury; we have to move quickly."

Sailor Moon, still embraced with her daughter, smiled behind her to the Senshi and Tuxedo Mask. They were NOT acting like a battle had been won. "Uh, guys? It's over, isn't it? Cause I'm pretty wiped out from drawing on the Silver Crystal twice today."

"It's about to be," Mars gleamed, then said, "You gave us the idea, Sailor Moon! —We're going to stop Wiseman in his tracks now, before he can disappear and one day return as yet _another_ Metallia of some kind!"

Sailor Moon was thinking very slowly, she knew. As Rini stood, but hugging Sailor Moon even more tightly, the Moon Princess shook her head, then stood. She watched as Mercury started typing on a strange computer from the future. —And it suddenly hit her as she saw the Cauldron in the weird display. "Sailor Mercury, you can't do this!" It was an **abomination**! She didn't know how she knew it; she just knew it to be true!

Rini had joined the circle of Senshi and Tuxedo Mask around Mercury, just as Mercury said, "NOW!"

"**No!**" Sailor Moon yelled, weakening as she imagined her kingdom disappearing before her very eyes. Her eyes opened wide on Mercury and she said, "_**You don't know what you're doing!**_ **You can't stop this!**" —Diamond hadn't said much about the actual Galaxia battle, but she surely knew the Senshi were misinterpreting things severely; this was NOT the way!

"It'll save countless lives, Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask hissed at his true love, inwardly apologizing for being so belligerent towards the girl who'd just saved the world, but knowing she couldn't even pass a junior-high math assessment, much less be able to wrap her mind around concepts of theoretical physics that these portals relied on. He'd recognized some of the maths the future Senshi had used, and believed them to be valid future history; Serena wouldn't be able to understand this for years to come, much less in the next few moments required to carry out their plan. "YOU have to have faith, Sailor Moon."

Sailor Mars stood before the quickly-approaching Sailor Moon and said, "This is the right thing to do, Serena; had we known Metallia was just going to keep coming back over and over, we would have done this before!"

"_**No you WOULDN'T have!**_" Sailor Moon boomed, pushing Mars away and staring in horror at Mercury's fast-moving fingers. She was furious at her so-called protectors for making these decisions for her without discussion. "You were all DEAD, _**remember**_? And we don't know anything about what's supposed to happen—!"

Something told her to stop this at all costs, and she tried kicking Mercury's computer away, but Rini squealed "They're smarter than you, Serena! Let them do this! They say they can save us from ever having to defeat this same monster again!" She jumped on her future mother's arm and tried to pull her down; calm her down.

"Yeah, we're not dead _THIS_ time, Sailor Moon," Jupiter smiled as Tuxedo Mask held Sailor Moon back, then nodded for Mercury to do her thing!

Sailor Moon struggled away from Tuxedo Mask and ran directly at Mercury this time, determined to stop them from trying to seal away _**Chaos**__** — something that couldn't be done!**_ But Tuxedo Mask grabbed her back again: "We'll take him out forever, Sailor Moon! You'll see this is for the best; we won't have to continue beating the same enemy every time!" God how he loved her, and her innocence, but he was likewise miffed with her inability to trust in them. To let _them_ save _**her**_ for once, instead of them having to watch her suffer for their weaknesses. When she continued to struggle against him in a fit of rage, he pushed her away from Mercury then yelled, "Do it!"

Sailor Venus grabbed Moon in a gentle hug from behind; Mask hadn't needed to shove her away so hard, especially after all he'd put her through recently. "It'll be okay, sweetie. We're doing this for you."

Mars and Jupiter dashed to their positions on either side of the tiny black hole through which this entity Chaos was going to escape. They charged their attacks, and Mars first fried the portal, then Jupiter rocked it with a Thunder attack, just as Mercury believed the future Senshi's programming suggested must happen. "**NOW,** Mercury!"

Using the computer, Mercury engaged the devices along the ground and then ran the program. What looked like laser beams of light emanated from the stolen devices in several colors, all finding their way into the tiny dot of a portal. None of them could imagine what their actions were doing, but they had to have faith in the future Sailor Mercury's depictions of the cauldron portal that would banish Chaos, and the program used to control these strange devices. Faith that their action today would dump this evil entity into this Cauldron thing, from which he'd never arise again.

Finally, Sailor Venus, still holding a struggling, crying Sailor Moon, threw her Love-Me Chain, just as Tuxedo Mask extended his cane in the same direction, and together they knocked the remains of Wiseman's soul through a wormhole that Mercury's program 'moved' to the Cauldron.

And it had worked!

"He's gone forever!" Mars yelled triumphantly, watching the wisp of smoke disappear into the tiny Cauldron shape of a portal. She ran back towards the Senshi with glee, jumping into the group for hugs and cries of victory.

.

**TO CLOSE THE PORTAL****  
><strong>"Wait a minute! The portal's not closing!" Mercury yelled, quite alarmed, then looked over at the others who were busy celebrating. All except Sailor Moon, who was still on the ground beside her, sobbing. Mercury announced, "It's getting BIGGER! This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"But he's dead!" Rini yelled over to Mercury. "You all finished him off forever, right?"

Jupiter saw the problem, though, and quickly moved to Mercury: "Close the portal," she whispered.

"_**Trying!**_" Mercury responded, typing furiously into the computer that controlled the mechanisms they'd used to widen the wormhole. She stopped typing, long enough to see that the mechanisms were working — it's just that the portal was apparently defying laws of physics that should have shut it down. She gulped. This was out of her league. ALL this was out of her league; she'd merely tried following her future self's lead; had trusted that her future self would understand these things. None of this portal stuff was even well-conceived of in the twentieth century.

Mars stood before Mercury and seethed, "If you don't get this thing closed—"

"_**SHE KNOWS THAT, Rei!**_" Sailor Moon yelled, finally standing but still unable to control her misery. She knew that no physical science could close this portal they'd opened in an incredibly misguided attempt to forever lock away _Chaos_; she somehow knew that they'd broken a universal law in their attempt to make the world a better place, and the universe was going to make them pay.

A high price.

An unbearable price.

Tuxedo Mask was throwing his little daughter into the air, laughing. They'd done it! They'd forever destroyed Chaos, and without having had to watch Serena suffer more than she already had! For that instant, all was perfect; he caught his daughter and turned triumphantly to Sailor Moon.

The girl looked crushed; was still crying. An angry part of him wondered if they should have banished Stupidity as well, but, as usual, he'd simply explain to his future wife what they'd done, and if he could explain it simply enough, he knew she'd be happy, as well. Sometimes Serena was a little slow on the uptake, but for the rest of them, this was a time to celebrate! They had bested the evil from the world forever; they were gods among men!

He noted, however, that the Senshi weren't exactly celebrating anymore; they must have found a problem in the programming. He started to walk over—

"_**You GUYS!**_" Mercury choked out in horror, now holding the sobbing Sailor Moon with one arm as she furiously punched keys with the other. "_**IT'S NOT CLOSING!**_"

Tuxedo Mask then stared at the cauldron-shaped portal; it wasn't just _not closing_, but rather it _was_ growing! He looked for his daughter and saw her among the cacophony of Senshi around Sailor Mercury: "RINI!" he yelled. It was in his mind that somehow, Wiseman had come BACK for his daughter—

.

Chaos screamed in the Cauldron: "THOSE IDIOTS!" it laughed uncontrollably. "What I'd been trying to do all along, they did _**for me!**_" It gleefully relaxed in its home, finally; where it had all started. What he had devised, including the idiots he'd made, who had ever since continually tried overthrowing him in battle after battle, would now, _FINALLY_, after eons, be forever destroyed within his own Cauldron. And he'd have a front-seat view!

.

Sailor Moon knew what she had to do; she'd known it moments ago, just as Mercury had started re-directing the wormhole into the forbidden Cauldron, which, no, she didn't know WHY it was forbidden; it just came to her as she saw it materialize. There was no time for goodbyes, just time for regrets, as she made a mad dash to the portal, knowing the Silver Crystal was the only thing that could possibly seal this wormhole into the Cauldron now —and she wasn't sure even that would be enough, but it was all she had. She made her dive head first—

Rini was the first to notice the ever-errant past figure of her mother trying to follow Wiseman. Rini screamed, rushing to stop Sailor Moon's jump into to the abyss: "_**Mama, NOoooo!**_"

Tuxedo Mask's eyes filled with the now horrific scene that had followed his moment of absolute bliss: the portal was finally closing, but his daughter was running towards it —and then he saw Sailor Moon disappear into the portal. Before his brain had processed any of it, he had run at Rini from an angle, smashing into her to prevent her from being sucked into the portal as well.

But it was in that very second that he felt unbounded grief as the bond he'd always felt, in every lifetime, snapped with a cold, painful finality.

Sailor Mars had also followed her Princess, as fast as she'd been able, knowing it would be a suicide mission at best, but unable to stop herself. She smashed into a building at the far end of the destroyed dark crystal, then turned around, expecting to see Sailor Moon in a new circumstance, or at least expecting to find herself dead—

She started shaking violently and crying when she saw merely the same street they'd occupied before. Tuxedo Mask was laying on the ground, frozen, staring at her; and Sailors Venus and Jupiter were in front of her —they'd followed her towards the portal as well.

Sailor Mercury, scanning the area immediately in front of Sailor Mars, announced with finality: "The portal is closed." As professionally as she could manage, Mercury added, "She's gone."

.

**ELSEWHERE**  
>Chronos had felt the disturbance and ignored the emergency call from the Gate Keeper, opting instead to transport to the forbidden area of space to see for himself the Cauldron. It didn't seem breached, on first glance… but then Chronos noted that someone had drilled a wormhole directly into the Cauldron! HE called for help as he felt himself slipping away, and understood immediately that in short order, everyone and everything would likewise slip away. And then there would be no time; no time to fix this colossal mistake, no time to repair the damages… literally, <em><strong>no time<strong>_.

The last voice he heard was that of his offspring, herself one of the new order, the star-seed holder Setsuna. "Father! .._Father!_"

.

Ares had been battling yet another Titan, his favorite sport, when he felt the gates of space pull him apart, then crush him together…

His opponent, Selene, watched in horror as Ares _folded_ into another dimension —something that was _never_ to have happened! They had done it to others, simply in play, but ..but this was impossible!

"**Call Chronos!**" Ares yelled to the Titan, even though he felt for sure that his grandfather Chronos had already been lost. Chronos had been among the first of their kind; he would apparently be among the first to go. In a final bid for his mere existence, the god of Mars yelled, "**CHRONOS!**" one last time; it was the last voice he'd ever hear, and it had been his own.

.

Aphrodite was sparring, as well, but this time with her son Eros. They were amid the Great Council, discussing the lovely maidens they'd helped convince the Council to bring forth into the world; how well they'd done at putting this 'Dark Phantom' away _yet again_. Poor Selene had been so distressed upon Chaos' attack upon the Moon, all those centuries ago, but these mortals that Selene had helped conceive were battling Chaos as well as any of the gods ever had.

"Of course," Eros added with a sly smile, "unlike us, the mortals never tried to bind Chaos to their own bidding!"

"How could they," Aphrodite giggled. "They know not of him; they're filled with the love they'd always been subject to! They couldn't devise such plans as our own." Which, Aphrodite thought, was precisely why their power had been dispersed to these mortals-turned-_semi_-deities. She was proud of them; proud of Selene; even proud of her father for allowing the dispersion of power, though he'd really just been tricked into it.

Eros nearly coughed up an arrow as Aphrodite stood watching; the god of war, her husband and Eros' father, was no longer amongst them.

Aphrodite had felt the same thing: "He's been ripped from our world!" _Forever!_

And suddenly the Council room they were in was sucked into a void, taking them with it.

.

Selene, having seen the most horrific of scenes just now, disappeared into the void through which she, of very few, could transverse. She needed to find Chronos NOW, for not only was their world disintegrating before them, but she'd just felt her mortal protégé fall. The very protégé who was never to have fallen; the one who was to be fashioned into a deity herself. Serenity, daughter of Queen Serenity, a semi-deity through Selene's union with a mortal. The holder of the Silver Crystal.

Had she been lied to? Anger coursed through her veins as she rounded the bend and began to enter the Solar System's Time Gate, only to hit a figurative brick wall. The Time Gate wasn't there, but a great void was, a vacuum that was suddenly trying to suck her in…

Before she could be sucked in, she disappeared and reappeared at the side of her greatest enemy, Zeus. _Jupiter._ The one who'd pissed off Chaos by banishing most of her own kind, the Titans.

She rounded on his throne and yelled, "YOU!" —into a face that was being sucked into the same void as his son Ares had gone.

.

**A CHANGE OF HEART****  
><strong>Sailor Jupiter turned around to Sailor Mercury and demanded, "**Well open it back UP!**" She was stricken with horror as well, and having likewise felt a snap of bond that had bound her to Sailor Moon for the last year, she grabbed Mercury's computer and, as if aiming a gun, pointed it at the place where the horrid black hole had been, and started punching buttons. She had no idea what she was doing; she didn't care. She just **needed** that portal opened again.

Sailor Venus looked at Mercury, then at the crazy lights flying out of the mechanisms they'd placed to redirect the portal. Jupiter didn't know what she was doing, but Mercury sure should have some idea. Venus grabbed the computer from Jupiter and threw it back into Mercury's hands: "Open it back up, Mercury! NOW!"

But there would be no re-opening. Their henshins started failing, all of them; Jupiter had watched as the others lost their fukus, but then her own bow unwrapped itself, and her clothes started twisting off her body in a strange reversal of her transformation. 'I'm dying,' she thought as she was spun out of her Senshi fuku and spiraled towards the ground as Lita. As much as the henshin had given her strength, this unnatural de-henshin was sapping her strength. She fell to the street in her civilian clothes, merely trying to catch her breath.

Rini was still there, marveled Rei. "_She can't be dead,_" she said weakly, trying to sit up in the suddenly heavy gravity and rouse the others. "Serena can't be gone; Rini's still here." Tears were flowing from her eyes anyway, though, knowing that Serena was, in fact, gone.

"She's dead," Darien choked out, splayed on the ground and looking at the smashed dark crystal construct, trying to will the portal back into existence.

That Rini was there should have given him hope, but his world was black now.

Rini bent over her dad and said, "Darien, let's get back to my palace; Daddy will know what to do." But she didn't say that she, too, had felt the snap of a bond. Not just to her mother, but to _her Mother_; the Neo-Queen Serenity. And to her father, King Endymion. Puu was gone; and she felt around her neck and discovered that her Time Gate key was gone, as well. She started stepping backwards, looking at the scene before her, then turned and ran as fast as she could. _Away._

Darien watched his daughter as she fled, but couldn't bear to stand, much less give chase. He didn't even consider looking at the Senshi; it didn't matter. Nothing mattered to him. He pulled himself up finally as people started flooding the area, gabbing about the amazing battle that had just taken place. But what did Darien have left? Images of Serena flooded his mind, especially those from the last several months, when he'd been so cruel to her. Or from moments ago, when she'd tried to stop them from banishing Chaos to the Cauldron.

He entered the elevator of his building and pressed his floor level, ignoring those who were exiting and speaking to him. When he reached his apartment, he opened the door and fell to the floor, sobbing. She'd warned him, and he'd considered only her poor math scores, neglecting the fact that she had _just_ battled Wiseman, _and won_, and didn't mind the prospect of doing it over and over. She'd known the way!

He stood furiously and yelled in agony, then ran to the balcony, deciding that if he couldn't follow Serena through the portal, he surely knew of another way to follow her.

.

**A NEW DAY**  
>There was nothing but pain; as the entity moved, it tried to view the cold emptiness about it, but couldn't 'see' anything. Couldn't 'hear' anything. In desperation, it tried to move, but didn't seem to have a body with which to feel, or smell, or sense anything at all.<p>

'So this is death.'

Eons passed, and it detected something. Not sure what, but _something_. It finally stopped trying to flail about and it attempted to reach out other ways; its mind screaming through the void for any sort of contact.

'It's okay,' it finally heard. Or _felt_. 'Sleep now.'

But it had been asleep —_forever_! It felt tied up, though it couldn't feel; and it wanted to burst through something, though there was nothing. His mind screamed for help, for anything. For Serenity.

The goddess of love knelt over the black form and placed her hand on it: "She's going to kill me. Again." They weren't supposed to interfere ever again with this new pantheon, since the last interference had led to such drastic ends for the gods.

And Darien finally opened his eyes. He felt air pour into his lungs, and was finally able to use his vocal cords to scream, "SERENA!"

.

**CAULDRON**  
>Chaos was pinned in the entrance of the Cauldron with the Moon Princess, and had been for eons now. He smirked, "Ah, I hear your boy."<p>

Serena held still yet; if either of them lost position, the Cauldron would be opened yet again.

"The one who abandoned the daughter you fought so hard for!" Chaos laughed. "What a _keeper!_"

Serena ignored him. Her mind had been frozen in the battle of will forever, and this battle, she could _not_ lose.

Hades appeared by them now: "Excuse me; if I may be so bold, we've been stuck in this place for quite some time now—"

"Oh shut UP you sniveling brat!" Chaos growled—

Serena quickly shifted her body and spun over Chaos' head; he matched her move perfectly and struck out at her face! But Serena had been prepared for that and kicked her leg behind her, striking the ethereal body of Chaos where it hurt the most. It had taken her ages to think up this move, and while it wouldn't win them anything, it would sure irk the entity.

Hades cleared his throat, then said, "If you two are finished? Yes, thank you. Look, the rest of us have been thinking; why don't we go back to the way things were? You know, us gods up at the Eternal Pantheon, dead for all intents and purposes; while you two seal this wormhole with something _besides yourselves_, then work your schemes against each other as always! —Serenity, you could continue your fight for love and justice; Chaos, you could go back to your, um, _destroying_."

Both Chaos and Serenity growled, "Beat it, Hades."

Then a physical lightning bolt landed between Serenity and Chaos; both moved their heads to avoid the heat of it, then started kicking and scratching at each other while locked in the wormhole which had been bored into the cauldron, in which they were stuck and refused to move, lest one or the other should "win".

Zeus appeared and pulled his lightning bolt free. "I challenge either or both of you to a duel!"

"He's just bored," Chaos said to Serenity, then twisted suddenly to throw the Moon Princess off-balance. She kicked his legs out as she lost her balance, causing Chaos to lose his balance, and they both fell, momentarily, but grabbed onto the edge of the wormhole, then climbed back up immediately. Chaos growled again, "Let it GO Serenity! They're not worth it!"

Serena had no idea what he was talking about; she was close to tears. But she knew she couldn't let him distract her, not even for a moment, or the Cauldron would re-open and take everyone.

.

**NOT THE BEST FIT**  
>"What happened?" Darien asked, head pounding in pain.<p>

When he opened his eyes, he was looking at …he closed his eyes. NO! He wouldn't believe what was before his eyes; AND Serena was gone.

Ares stepped forward, careful to duck under this human's ceiling so as not to crash another hole into it, then sat on the bed. "You ran into my shield, idiot."

"Who ARE you?" Darien asked as his bed crashed to the ground under this giant's enormous weight. He'd opened his eyes briefly, but the nightmare hadn't gone away, and Serena was STILL gone.

Ares dropped his sword to the ground tip-first, but then quickly pulled it back up as it had sunk a foot into the floor beneath. Angrily, he bellowed, "**Of what are these abodes constructed? TREES?**"

Darien's eyes opened, and he backed up in the bed as far as possible, nearly plastering himself on the wall behind him. "Who ARE you? —no, no, WHAT are you?"

Ares sneered at the youth and sneered, "I'm am your BETTER, for one; I am the one whose LIFE you destroyed for another; and I am the one who's REALLY PISSED right now!" He stood suddenly to turn and glare at Endymion, but his head crashed into the ceiling, and a scream was heard from the apartment above. Ares angrily reached up through the hole and grabbed at some woman's leg, causing another scream to emit from above—

Darien jumped up and held his hands out: "Don't! —whoever you are, don't involve her! Let her go!"

Ares shrugged, then released the foot.

Darien, breathing hard, took in the sight before him: giant man; rough, dark beard; ancient Roman garb, mostly metal; and an enormous shield with a very familiar marking on it:

"Mars?" Darien asked.

Ares growled, "_**Lord of Mars**_, underling; my name is Ares, of course." '_Idiot._'

Darien shook his head: "This is a bad dream." He'd recently had many bad dreams; and now he'd lost Serena. The last thing he remembered—

"Yeah, you ran into my shield, you idiot," Ares said, then pointed outside at the balcony, where he felt he might be more comfortable. When the young man nodded, Ares walked straight through the glass doors, then brushed off the glass from his armor. "**What is this?**" he demanded. "**You mortals booby-trap yourselves now?**"

Darien considered running out through the front door, but finally decided that he couldn't leave this …_ancient brute!_ …to the world. Could he be a youma, he wondered idly, as he gingerly stepped over the broken glass and onto the balcony.

Ares was outside, swinging his sword back and forth as if in practice; he swiped through a bird and cut it in half, sending it spiraling to the ground in two pieces. "Huh," Ares smiled.

Darien asked, "Why are you here? —you really ARE Ares, right? Not some manifestation of Wiseman come back to destroy me?"

"**I TOLD YOU,**" the irritated Ares boomed, "I'm HERE because of YOU! —And your other wannabe gods who drilled a hole into the Cauldron!"

Darien quickly asked, "Can you help me retrieve Serena? …my girlfriend! Um, my future wife! She sorta went.. well, INTO the Cauldron, and we've lost her. I can't feel her anymore!"

Ares sneered at the babbling idiot who looked like he was about to cry. It just infuriated him further. "I should cut your head off," Ares said. "—except I think you'd like that." It had been Ares' shield, after all, which had stopped Endymion from plunging to his death. Then before the human could speak again, Ares jested, "Do I look like Hermes to you, willing to go save some stupid woman who found her way into the underworld?"

Darien couldn't understand why this …_giant!_ …was making jokes at a time like this. "Serena's no _Persephone_; I need to know if she can be saved!"

"Oh shut your trap, mortal," Ares growled. "We're here to find that out of YOU!" …and because he and his fellows were PUT here and had nothing else to do. But this little runt didn't need to know of that.

"We?" Darien asked, turning ghost-white. "There are MORE of you?"

.

Rini was crying into Ikuko's arms, but wouldn't tell her what was wrong. How could she? It would destroy Ikuko, and Kenji, and even Shingo. They wouldn't want anything more to do with her; and she had nobody else.

Well, except the very people who'd destroyed her life.

When there was a knock at the door, Rini tried to keep Ikuko from answering it. And on opening the door, as Ikuko fell to the ground, Rini bet Mama-Ikuko wished she had LISTENED to her! There was a giant at the door; a woman carrying a shield fashioned with snakes moving about it.

Rini gulped and stepped backwards; the woman held out her free hand and said, "**You are Mene; you shall come with me that I may provide protection.**"

This thing wasn't like her mother at all; she was horrifying! Not merely in her size, or the nasty 'shield' she carried about, but in her terrifying gaze, and that horrible helmet that looked heavier than a car. Rini wept and said, "I think I'm good, thank you anyway," and slammed the door. To her utter horror, the beast's outreached hand was sticking through the door in the same position Rini had last seen it. The door was destroyed!

.

As Athena carried the pink-haired Mene by the scruff of its neck, she bolted down the street of this tiny village Tokyo. She gruffly bellowed, "**I need to find the other star-seed carriers; do you know their whereabouts?**"

The pink thing couldn't say much besides squealing noises that the goddess of wisdom simply couldn't make out. She was tempted to throw this one of the Menae to the ground and kill it, but as they knew not the whereabouts of the other 49, she figured she should keep it alive. It was the one thing that might convince Serenity to work with them to restore their home.

Because they SURE as hell wouldn't be staying here amongst the tiny mortals.

Far ahead, she saw Aphrodite, and with her, several female mortals who looked to be as terrified as Mene.

.

Eros paced before this sorry gang of mortals in the 'park' — a small strip of land the size of his cleansing rooms, filled with sticks and puddles and flying beasts of all sorts. But that was beside the point. He turned to his mother and wife and demanded, "Show me the mechanical device of this Aiming."

"Ami," Ami corrected nervously. "And …and it's not mine."

"**YOU SAID IT WAS YOURS!**" Ares barked, then stomped a crater into the ground. He looked to Athena and said, "This simply will not do; I feel like I'm in a sinkhole, scared to move about for fear of drowning in muck!"

Rei said, "Look here, bucko, it IS hers, but it's from the future! Ami doesn't lie!"

Ares looked at the one who'd received his powers through Selene and Helios' treachery. And nodded. "Alright; you've got a bit of fight in you. You're no deity, of course; nor are you smart. But…" He looked her up and down, not for the first time, and demanded with horror: "**WHERE IS YOUR SWORD?**"

"_Fucking Neanderthal_," Rei murmured under her breath. Then blanched as her friends turned on her with shock. "_Well, _it slipped out! Sorry!"

"**THE MECHANICAL DEVICE!**" Athena yelled at Aiming. "**EXPLAIN IT!**"

Ami was shaking so hard that it took Lita to help her steady her hands and open it for the giants to gaze upon. Because 'gaze upon' would be all they could do unless they drank a "shrink me" drink — they could barely see the computer itself, much less anything the tiny computer depicted.

As Ami tried to explain to the disgusting Athena what she'd learned from the computer, Rei scooched over next to Darien and whispered, "Did you really try to kill yourself, Darien?" She didn't want Rini to hear of that again, but she had to know for herself. "—because you heard Endymion tell us we'd face all sorts of obstacles, and we'd have to keep our faith."

"Where is Endymion NOW, Rei?" Darien snorted, almost crying. His eyes watered yet again, and he fell against the bench, considering other ways he might end this existence and reunite with Serena again. Next time, he wouldn't question her again; next time, he wouldn't take her for granted…

"**YOUR WOMAN LIVES, IDIOT!**" Ares finally said to the sallow mortal. "If she didn't, this world would be in the Cauldron now." He glared at Aphrodite and said, "Can't you TURN OFF the LOVE THING for a minute so we can gather some actual information?"

The giant goddess smiled and pointed at Mina, who was staring at the ground. Mina winced on feeling eyes on her, and blurted out, "I can't do those things, Mr., um, …Mr. Ares."

"**Well what good are you?**" Ares demanded. "Why do you breathe air? You hold the crystal that has taken Aphrodite's powers! **USE THE DAMNED THING!**"

.

Artemis and Luna had finally found the scent of the Senshi and found them amidst the giants. Luna whispered, "I don't understand! I thought the Dark Crystal was gone and all was well!"

Artemis, though, was silent. Some ugly truths were about to come out, and yet the thing that struck him the hardest was the lack of Serena. He stepped forward and jumped onto Lita's lap: "Where is Serenity, you foolish morons!"

.

Mina grabbed her cat and giggled nervously: "He's a little ..um, _peculiar_! Don't mind—!"

"**TRAITOR!**" Athena yelled, growling at her …her _BROTHER_! Now a stupid feline!

Ares, as well, was shocked: "We'd believed you dead, Artemis! You were working with these mortals all along?"

"Now it makes sense!" Aphrodite said, glaring at the white cat who'd once been her brother. "YOU'RE the one who turned Zeus to this whole cause of encasing our powers in star seeds to give to these _**mortals**_!"

The wrath with which Aphrodite had said 'mortals' surprised all the, well, 'mortals'; they'd believed her to be the nicest of the bunch!

Mina grabbed Artemis close to her chest and said, "Leave him alone; whoever he is! He's MY cat; OUR advisor!"

Artemis said, "I need nobody to speak for me; these giant idiots overthrew the Titans, yet never even knew they'd been overthrown themselves!" Artemis shook his head, then advised the mortals: "They are large, and have weapons, but they are completely stilled; they have NO powers."

Luna interrupted this family reunion, focused on her own charge, and asked, "Where's Serena? We'd thought she'd defeated …" she trailed off. Cleared her throat, looking at Rini. "Where's Serena?"

Darien slunk down further on the bench, though it was barely possible, and Luna felt a foreboding answer coming on.

"Well if this IDIOT may speak," Ares said angrily, directly to Artemis, "Your brilliant, life-loving, soul-protecting crystal holders here DRILLED A HOLE IN THE CAULDRON!" He bent over to make sure his brat cat brother heard him clearly: "Serenity sealed the hole, and is bound with Chaos there; but not before some of us were sucked into this world, and apparently others were sucked into the Cauldron itself."

.

**CAULDRON ****Pt. ****II**  
>The former Sailor Pluto, now simply Setsuna after losing her powers, had been pulled into the Cauldron with her now-deceased father, Chronos. She could barely make her way through the abyss, but tried, and kept trying, until she saw what she'd needed to see for herself. The word of an errant uncle wouldn't do; she had to see Serenity for herself. '<em>Dammit, I'd JUST seen her before Wiseman was destroyed! How did she end up here?<em>'

"Ah, look, the little mortal realizes that she allowed the Senshi to carry future knowledge into the past, and knows she's responsible for this," Zeus said, slamming his lightning bolt to the ground before Setsuna. "Still feel like ye a god, Senshi?"

"I never felt like that," Setsuna steamed, but kept her eyes on Serenity. "But you know, _**RIGHT THERE**_ is the proof that that Selene and Helios were right all along, because YOU never would have sacrificed yourself for anything."

Zeus shrugged. "I sort of did," he said quietly. "You believe wrongly that I was tricked into dispersing the powers with star seeds, Senshi." The god of Jupiter collapsed to the ground beside Setsuna and sighed. "But I'm afraid YOU question the veracity of my choice."

"WHAT?" Setsuna said, then turned away from Serenity and glared at the giant moron.

"You heard me," Zeus said. "You're angry that the humans used knowledge and acted on it, even though their so-called 'hearts' were in the right place." He looked away, watching the floating orbs of souls yet to be born, and the ones who'd already been born and lived and died. "But you see, Setsuna, we Olympians would have made sport of such knowledge; you mortals fear only making mistakes. You certainly don't glory in them, except the few of you who were MEANT to be Olympians but were born to mortal bodies."

"We made mistakes," Setsuna agreed, plopping down beside her mortal enemy and supposed uncle, then looking upon Serenity. The Moon Princess was tangled in a circle with Chaos, forever battling him, waiting for a chance to best him. A chance that would probably never come; not while everyone she knew was alive. "Serenity suffers, but she doesn't have the drive to save herself because she knows everyone else she loves lives." She sighed. "The only way she beat Chaos before was when all had been lost, except herself and Chaos, and she fought FOR her world."

Zeus shrugged. "I don't understand the compulsion."

"You couldn't," Setsuna said.

"But the difference between us, mortal, is that I KNOW I don't understand the compulsion, and respect that her desire for others to be happy is what will allow the worlds continue." Zeus stood up then and left Setsuna, hoping he'd planted a seed that would get the Time Gate guardian up off her ass and onto doing the unimaginable.

Setsuna held back her tears. Of all the ones here, she might be the one who could break Serenity's concentration. But it would require an abomination far worse than what the Inner Senshi had done. She felt Selene's agreement, probably through Helios or Hermes, and dashed to the wormhole.

"Serenity, the Cauldron has opened elsewhere; the world is lost. I'm afraid our battle is over."

Serena turned to look at Sailor Pluto without her henshin, then exploded in Silver Light. Setsuna was struck dead immediately; Chaos was ejected from his own Cauldron through the very wormhole he'd been guarding; and Serenity was drawing on her crystal to finally close the wormhole so she could find the other breach in this Cauldron.

Zeus appeared beside her, watching as Setsuna's body fell towards the bottom of the Cauldron, then joined his hand with hers. He called on the dead Titan, Chronos, and all other Titans and Olympians alike, to join with Serenity in closing this monstrosity.

.

**PANTHEON**  
>"She'll be okay," Artemis told his father, back in the old Pantheon where most of the ruins were being restored by Hercules and the others with the strength to do so.<p>

"She was very brave," Zeus said. "—I never got to meet the one with MY powers, Artemis; tell me about her."

Artemis smiled, "Ah, Lita's a magnificent cook, for one. Fiercely loyal… of course, she'd gotten into some trouble for fighting earlier—"

"Ah!" Zeus smiled, having started to worry that his star seed holder was a matronly sort with no chutzpah. "That's good to hear."

"She's very powerful," Artemis agreed.

"And Serenity's Mene?" Zeus asked.

Artemis shook his head sadly. "The child Rini has lost her future; she's stuck in the past, I'm afraid, with parents that aren't old enough to parent her."

"The price we pay for losing Chronos and Setsuna," Zeus said, with the merest shiver to his voice.

"Their sacrifices will be made known one day," Artemis smiled. "Right now, Serenity isn't ready, of course."

Zeus said, "I'd thought she was '_fine'_, Artemis?"

The cat shrugged. "She has no memory of being Sailor Moon, or of Rini being her child from the future. She doesn't even remember Darien and her Senshi. We knew there'd be a price to pay—"

"But how can she fight?" Zeus asked.

"The same way she always has," Artemis grinned. "With things you don't like too much: love, justice…" The cat then added, "Of course, the universe has its rules, and Chaos' memories of the matter are gone, as well. As far as he's concerned, Serenity and Small Lady defeated Wiseman, and he's off to find another means to destroy worlds. He shouldn't be trying anything in what had been Crystal Tokyo again, if what Sailor Mercury's future computer says is true, so we merely have to awaken Sailor Moon to her role again so she can battle Chaos a few more times." Artemis winked: "I see no problem in that."

Zeus shivered at the thought, but acceded again that he'd made the right decision in allowing the moon goddess and the earth priest to grant mortals their powers. Especially this particular mortal, Serenity, who had proved without a doubt that she'd do anything, win any battle, to save the world she loved so much.


End file.
